Coeliac disease

Source: www.coeliac.org.uk

What is it?

Coeliac disease is not an allergy or simple food intolerance.

In fact it's an autoimmune disease, where the body's immune system attacks its own tissues.

In people with coeliac disease this immune reaction is triggered by gluten, a collective name for a type of protein found in the cereals wheat, rye and barley. A few people are also sensitive to oats.

In coeliac disease, eating gluten causes the lining of the gut (small bowel) to become damaged and may affect other parts of the body.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms of coeliac disease vary from person to person and can range from very mild to severe. Not all effects of coeliac disease are related to the gut.

Possible symptoms include:

• bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, excessive wind, heartburn, indigestion, constipation
• any combination of iron, vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency
• tiredness, headaches
• weight loss (but not in all cases)
• recurrent mouth ulcers
• hair loss (alopecia)
• skin rash (dermatitis herpetiformis- 'DH')
• defective tooth enamel
• osteoporosis
• depression
• infertility
• recurrent miscarriages
• joint or bone pain

neurological (nerve) problems such as ataxia (poor muscle co-ordination) and neuropathy (numbness and tingling in the hands and feet).

Some symptoms may be confused with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or wheat intolerance, while others may be put down to stress, or even getting older.

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to be underweight or have lost weight to have coeliac disease: most people are of normal weight or even overweight at diagnosis.

In babies, gut symptoms may develop after weaning onto gluten cereals.

Other symptoms in young children include muscle wasting in the arms and legs, a bloated tummy and irritability. Some infants may gradually fail to gain weight, or lose weight after previously growing well. Symptoms in older children vary as they do in adults, and can include poor growth, short stature, anaemia and recurrent mouth ulcers. 

"Gluten Sensitivity"

It has been posited that there is a milder form of coeliac disease called "gluten sensitivity". In these cases the blood tests (notably TTG) and small bowel biopsy are normal.

However this hypothesis has not been tested, and there are no evidence based trials to support it. The concept is not supported by most doctors, and has been described as "highly controversial" by one medical laboratory.

Another laboratory states that several studies have found IgG anti-gliadin antibodies in 20-30% of normal results. There are no pulished data to support a role for laboratory tests in diagnosing non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.

Many people feel better if they don’t eat wheat, myself included. But to say that this is due to the gluten component of wheat is choosing to implicate one specific component of wheat, by falsely extrapolating information about coeliac disease.

About Wheat

Source: Angel Answers by Diana Cooper

"In the 1800s bread was made with mixed grains such as barley, rye and wheat. Rye, oats and barley have been left relatively unmodified. However, Wheat was very expensive. Modern day wheat is the result of 150 years of hybridization and genetic alteration, mostly due to American, Canadian and British varieties. In the 1860s the original wheat, known as spelt wheat, was 'improved' by cross breeding to increase the wheat germ size and double the amount of gluten within each grain....

"It is not just the gluten content of wheat that has been altered. As the new high-gluten grains became increasingly more susceptible to attacks by bugs and fungus, the toughness of the husk has increased. At the same time modifications were made to the outer shell and the stalk to combat wind and rain damage...."